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Private Collection, California (acquired directly from the artist)Acquired from the above by the present owner

Catalogue Essay

Luis Cruz Azaceta left Cuba for the United States at the age of 18 after experiencing both the Batista regime and the post-1959 Revolution under Fidel Castro. The violence, human cruelty, alienation and injustice he witnessed would become central tenants of his work, which spans more than 40 years. With his expressionist style and his visceral subject matter, it comes as no surprise that the artist credits the influence of artists like Francis Bacon, Egon Schiele and Francisco Goya. The present work comes from a period when self-portraits dominated his compositions and the AIDS epidemic was rampant. In Self-Portrait with Ring, the emaciated figure symbolizes the fear and ambiguous dread of exodus and migration, in a way reminiscent of Leon Golub’s paintings. Yet, the purposefully distorted self-portrait enveloped by a large floating ring also has a mystical quality that may also harken back to an understanding of Santería from his native Cuba. Cruz Azaceta’s work has been widely exhibited and is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Blanton Museum of Art, among other important institutions.